Illinois Football: 2 Crystal Ball Predictions in for the Illini

With the new coaching staff finally settled in, the Illinois football team is starting to make some waves in the recruiting world.

Multiple players have signed up with the Illini for the 2021 campaign, but the first big class for Bret Bielema and his staff will be the class of 2022. Already, there are two players who have received a Crystal Ball Prediction in favor of the Orange and Blue.

The previous coaching regime wasn’t great at many things when it came to recruiting, but they were able to build up the front lines. Bielema and his staff are looking to do the same with a player like Camron Douglas.

A 6-foot-2, 305-pound defensive tackle, Douglas hails from Haywood High School and resides in Brownsville, Tennessee. He is rated as a three-star recruit and ranked as the No. 1122 player in the class of 2022. Douglas is also the No. 76 defensive tackle in the nation and the No. 40 player in the state of Tennessee.

The Crystal Ball Prediction was put in by Jeremey Werner of the Illini Inquirer. While there is a prediction in place, Werner only gives the confidence a six out of 10. I would assume there is a good feeling there by Werner considering Illinois only offered Douglas a scholarship on March 3.

Illinois has a nice stable of quarterbacks in the program right now, but a new coaching staff means bringing in quarterbacks who will fit their system as well. Donovan Leary is the first quarterback target who might sign-up to join the fight.

Leary is just completing his junior year of high school as a 6-foot-2, 190-pound pro-style quarterback. He is the signal-caller for Timber Creek High School and resides in Sicklerville, New Jersey. He is rated as a three-star recruit and ranked as the No. 933 player in the class of 2022. Leary is also the No. 40 pro-style quarterback in the nation and the No. 25 player coming out of the state of New Jersey.

The Crystal Ball Prediction for Leary is also from Werner, but the 247Sports reporter is more confident on Leary than he is on Douglas. Werner gave a seven out of 10 confidence that Leary will end up with the Orange and Blue.

This would be a good get for Illinois considering they just offered Leary a scholarship on March 15. He also has roughly 15 scholarship offers, and most are from solid programs like Maryland, Virginia Tech and Temple.

Overall, it is nice to see Illinois starting to get some momentum with solid top 1000-ish recruits. Let’s build this class so we have depth moving forward.